On May 15, 2014, the City of Chicago filed a Joint Motion in the original Shakman case (Case#69 C 2145) to set a hearing date to argue that the City has substantially complied with the Shakman decree and the Shakman decree should be dismissed against the City. The evidence obtained in a pending class action lawsuit filed by our firm suggests otherwise. Bonnstetter et al v. City of Chicago et al, Case No. 13 CV 4384. In spite of the fact that our class has yet to be certified and publication has not occurred, we have contracted with over 70 plaintiffs who allege they were victimized by the City of Chicago’s violation of the 2007 Shakman Accord and the City of Chicago’s 2011 Shakman Accord Hiring Plan for the Chicago Police Department by:

1. failing to provide an equal employment opportunity to all qualified Candidates;
2. failing to prohibit the entry of improper considerations into the selection and hiring process;
3. failing to prohibit the entry of political reasons or factors into the selection and hiring process by removing Candidates who were veterans of the United States armed forces, including recent combat veterans;
4. failing to prohibit the entry of political or reasons of factors in the selection and hiring process by allowing outside politicians to directly influence the hiring process;
5. failing to create a transparent hiring system that minimized the ability to exert preferential and disadvantageous treatment;
6. failing to oversee the outside testing administrator and failing to certify that the testing process was followed; and abusing its governmental power by applying the testing procedures inconsistently and not uniformly.

The Shakman case is set for argument on Monday, June 16, 2014.